TribCast: Assessing Gov. Greg Abbott's legislative priorities
In this week's episode, Matthew speaks with Patrick, Ross and Alexa about Gov. Greg Abbott's State of the State speech and the delays in the 2021 redistricting process. Full Story
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![Newly-elected House Speaker Dade Phelan greets Gov. Greg Abbott before he speaks to the Texas House during opening ceremonies on Jan. 12, 2021.]()
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Census delays will force Texas lawmakers into a special session to redraw political maps
The Census Bureau revealed Wednesday that the detailed results lawmakers need to reconfigure congressional and state legislative districts won’t be available until at least two months after the end of the regular 2021 legislative session. Full Story
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![The 2020 Census questionnaire on April 26, 2020.]()
Credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA via REUTERS -
The 2021 redistricting process will impact Texas politics for the next 10 years. Here’s how it’ll work.
Republicans will control the process, but a legal and political fight is sure to commence over who is empowered and whose voice is diluted. Full Story
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![The Texas Capitol in Austin on June 20, 2017.]()
Credit: Austin Price/The Texas Tribune -
Watch: Here’s what you should know heading into the 2021 Texas legislative session
We surveyed some of The Texas Tribune’s reporters and editors about what they’d be watching come Jan. 12, when state lawmakers are scheduled to gavel in the new session. Full Story
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![Exterior of the Texas State Capitol on Nov. 19, 2020.]()
Credit: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: When mapmaking Texas politicians are smiling and quiet, pay attention
Remaking the state’s political maps — redistricting — is important. One way to tell is that the lawmakers making the maps do their dead-level best to avoid saying anything that might signal their intent. Full Story
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![The House floor during the 86th legislative session. Jan. 9, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Watch: Lawmakers discuss the state budget, redistricting and their priorities ahead of Texas’ 2021 legislative session
Plus, what the Legislature will look like in a pandemic, and what Tribune reporters are watching most this legislative session. Full Story
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Republicans kept their grip on Texas government in 2020. In 2021, they'll be able to tighten it.
Because Republicans in the state House and Senate held onto their 20-year majority, they are positioned to further entrench their power until the next redistricting rolls around in 2031. Full Story
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![The Republican Party of Texas office in downtown Austin.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: A Texas election with a decade of politics at stake
A nine-seat change in the Texas House could affect the balance of power in the Texas Capitol, but also in Congress. Texas lawmakers will draw political maps next year that could remain in place until the 2030 census. Full Story
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![The floor of the house on April 11, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: The second election can be harder than the first one
Texas Democrats are trying to add nine seats to their total in the Texas House, enough to regain a majority they lost almost two decades ago. But Republicans aren't idle, and they're targeting seats Democrats barely won last time. Full Story
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![A voting sign at the South Austin Recreation Center polling site on Oct. 14, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Federal court blocks Trump effort to exclude undocumented immigrants when congressional seats are divvied up
Trump's bid to exclude undocumented immigrants from population counts for redistricting could cost Texas three seats in Congress. Thursday's ruling could still be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Full Story
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![A protester holds a sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court where the court ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration did not give an adequate explanation for its plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, delivering a victory to New York state and others challenging the proposal in Washington, U.S., June 27, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria]()
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With time running out, Texas abruptly launches a $15 million ad campaign chasing an accurate census count
After rejecting efforts to spend state money on outreach to help ensure an accurate census count, Republican leaders are now dipping into federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for a last-minute ad campaign. Full Story
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![United States Census 2020 mailers sent to Austin. Photographed on June 23, 2020.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
TribCast: Reading the political tea leaves on Biden in Texas and a census undercount
On this week's TribCast, Alexa talks to Matthew, Patrick and Cassi about the Biden campaign's recent activity in Texas, the fallout of a census undercount and early indications of what the legislative session might look like in a pandemic. Full Story
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![Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a community event in San Antonio on Dec. 13, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: The Texas Legislature can meet for up to 140 days. The pandemic raises a question: Should it?
The Legislature starts its next regular session in January and can meet for up to 140 days. That gives lawmakers time to consider more than 6,000 bills. During a pandemic, they might want to do a lot less. Full Story
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![Texas State Capitol on Jan. 8, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas redistricting could be affected by coronavirus-related delays of census
Under a proposal by the Trump administration, the delivery of data Texas lawmakers need to redraw political districts would be pushed to July — past the end of the state's regular legislative session. Full Story
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Analysis: The Texas Senate will be a quiet zone in a noisy, important election year
In what promises to be a tumultuous and competitive election year, races for the Texas House are going to be a lot more interesting than those for the Texas Senate. Full Story
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![State Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, on the Senate floor on April 9, 2019.]()
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Analysis: Texas candidates have one week left to sign up or shut up
Candidates have one more week to officially declare their 2020 campaigns. In the Texas House — a key partisan battleground — as many as 31 districts, out of 150, could be competitive. Full Story
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![State Capitol on June 20, 2017.]()
Credit: Austin Price for The Texas Tribune -
Texas considering whether to hand driver’s license, citizenship information to Census Bureau
The Texas Department of Public Safety received a request for the information earlier this month but has taken no action. Full Story
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Credit: Emily Albracht for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: A haunted House story about Texas speakers and redistricting
Texas House speakers come and go. So do redistricting sessions in the Texas Legislature. And maybe — just maybe — there's a relationship between those two cycles. Full Story
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![State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, is sworn in as House speaker by U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019. Looking on is Speaker Bonnen's wife Kimberly.]()
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Analysis: Texas redistricting is hard enough when politicians trust the mapmakers
Lawmakers get jittery when it's time to redraw their political maps, and the exercise is based on a mix of power, party, clout, tenure — and trust. That last one is a fleeting quality in the Texas House right now. Full Story
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![State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, looks at redistricting maps at a Senate hearing on May 13, 2011.]()
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How a decade of voting rights fights led to fewer redistricting safeguards for Texas voters of color
In a state with a long history of discrimination, lawmakers on Tuesday will kick off the 2021 round of political mapmaking — the first in nearly half a century without federal oversight. Full Story
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune
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